The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has added safer railroad crossings and improved qualifications of school bus drivers to its 2004 - 2005 list of most wanted safety improvements. The safety board examines transportation accidents and promotes ways to prevent them by focusing its attention on recommendations for each year that appear most necessary. School bus accidents can be reduced by implementing safety improvements such as installing stop signs at crossings that lack gates or lights and requiring better training and management of bus drivers.
Everyday, vehicles and trains collide an average of nine times, and in just the first five months of 2004, there were 1,205 crashes resulting in 155 deaths. In four instances, the train collisions involved school buses. There are 82,000 railroad crossings without gates across the nation, presenting an accident rate seven times that of crossings with gates that block vehicles.
While the overall risk of school bus accidents at crossings is fairly low, the NTSB has made installing lights and gates at all school bus crossings that now only have warning signs a priority because of the catastrophic results that can occur should an accident happen. Improper school bus driving training, i.e. to stop, look and listen at all grade crossings, further threatens the risk of school bus accidents. The NTSB also hopes that combining enhanced school bus training, evaluation with periodic reviews of on-board videotapes, and questions on passive grade crossings in the commercial driver's license manual and examination will further eliminate risk of deadly school bus accidents.
When looking at just one month of reported school bus accidents across the nation, education and bus safety experts said in September 2004 that the accidents were easily avoidable and could serve as valuable lessons for parents and children alike. School bus accidents during the month reviewed involved falling beneath school buses and being crushed by the large tires, slipping from a parent's grasp and falling beneath wheels of moving school buses and simply running out in the path of oncoming school buses. The National School Transportation Association (NSTA), the largest trade group for chartered school bus companies in the nation, claims school bus travel is 2,000 times safer than traveling by car, but the area surrounding the school bus is what presents the most danger.
Texas Accident Help Center - Reducing Risks
Ways of reducing the risk of school bus accidents can include a simple measure like getting to the bus stop early enough so that a child will not be late and risk running after the school bus and falling in its path. Making sure children face forward while riding the bus can prevent more serious school bus accidents because the high, cushioned seat back will help prevent them from sustaining an injury. Just two states currently have laws requiring students to wear lap style seat belts, and the use of them is debated.
Even though older buses, purchased before September 1992, are not equipped with lap style seat belts, some studies have indicated the use of them will put children at even greater risk for injuries in a front school bus accident crash because of the ability to go over the lap belt and hit their heads and necks on the seat back. Others argue the use of seat belts will better guarantee children are facing forward, and it may help to reduce goofing around. Continued debate will allow lawmakers to take a closer look at the safety designs of school buses and the features that may contribute to worsening school bus accidents.
School bus accidents can be greatly reduced by implementing seemingly simple measures. Taking the time to make sure safety precautions are being followed can help prevent school bus accidents from becoming more disastrous should they occur.
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